Word of mouth

Posted: Tuesday, August 15, 2000

By THE JUNEAU EMPIRE

Word of Mouth gives readers a forum to express opinions on a variety of issues by telephone. Calls must be limited to one minute and we reserve the right to edit calls for clarity, length and libel. The number to call in 586-4636. Then press 8255 to leave your message.

The homemade whale has embarrassed and insulted the entire community and cheated the tourists of a true Alaska experience. The foolish scam could have caused a serious accident.

I agree with the caller who supports the one percent sales tax for the hospitals and the schools, but not the skating rink. We are subsidizing Eaglecrest with our city taxes. Can we afford to add a skating rink?

If a promoter sold 1,000 tickets for $200 each with the promise of seeing a top-name performer, but when the public arrived for the show all they got to see was a fiberglass cutout, wouldnt the performer be charged with fraud and be ordered to pay back the money to the people he defrauded? Maybe its legal to commit fraud as long as youre cheating the tourists.

I am in disbelief to the greed expressed by certain Juneau residents. I have lived in Juneau all my life, I have never owned a boat and never plan to, but I have just as much right to the resources of any seagoing resident. A special thank you to the Juneau commercial fisherman for selling your red king crab and other products on our docks and in our stores. Without you I would never get any king crab.

There's a lot of loose gravel on Egan Drive from the new paving and Ive got a cracked windshield and so do two other people in my office. Im sure theres many others out there. I think its time they brushed the road a little bit and started paying for these broken windshields.

It is time to use the one percent sales tax or a portion of the $5 tourist head tax to fund live TV broadcasts of the city and borough assemblys meetings for the citizens of Juneau. Regular scheduling of such a program would allow local residents to see who is knowledgeable about current issues before the assembly and who on the assembly is supporting special interest groups.

I can't count how many times I have been in a video store and Ill overhear someone asking if they have a certain movie for rent because they just came from the theater and saw it and want to rent or buy it. Hello? You just saw it at the theater, it takes at least two months before it hits the video stores. Its usually the same people who continue to ask. You people will save us a lot of time and grief if you just think about it and stop asking. As a fellow customer this will help keep line waiting smaller.

I don't know for you Joe Public but Im going to vote no on the one percent tax. The city failed to inform you the hospital is being run by a private company which bills the heck out of us. I think they need to pull that money out of their own pocket if they want it upgraded or fixed up. I am tired of paying taxes especially for a privately-managed hospital.

About the discussion about whether or not to put in a road; I dont think there should be a road out of Juneau. It will bring in a lot more crime, drugs sure there is that here already, this will just make it all that much more accessible. Therell be that many more people crazy enough to use and abuse them. Its a little bit of a safe haven here. If we open up the road its going to end up becoming another Seattle or possibly New York.

In reference to the drivers here in Juneau; I totally agree with the past couple of callers, our drivers here really need to go back and review the handbook to pass and receive your drivers license because many people ignore stop signs, ignore intersections in Juneau where you have to wait for a green to turn right; theres many rules that can cause major accidents that our drivers here dont follow. And not just young drivers but older drivers too.

Saw an interesting sight tonight. I watched a person take a cab to a convenience store to buy a six-pack of Pepsi with food stamps and then go home again in a cab.

You want to know the best place to play chicken in Juneau? Egan Drive northbound where the cars exit going to the bridge. It says merge left lane ends. Everybody can play chicken at their will because nobody merges left, they need some signage further back. Its just an accident waiting to happen.

I would like to compliment Carrs floral department. I had excellent customer service there. Sometimes in Juneau its hard to find a place with great customer service. Thank you Carrs.

I give credit to the Fish and Game for shutting down the commercial king crab fishery. Its about time they thought of people in Juneau instead of people who mostly come from Seattle. It is wiping out our resource and economy. There needs to be also a change of words; any time a family puts crab or fish on the table it is subsistence not sport fishing.

It would be nice if the Empire would publish a list of places where we can take our old newspapers and plastic bottles and other recyclable goods so that they can be recycled instead of thrown into the dump. If the Empire could do this on a regular basis much like they publish the gas prices around town I think Juneau would recycle to a larger degree than we already do.

By courtesy of our planning commission, the residents of Auke Bay and Fritz Cove Road will soon be subjected to daylight blasting and all-night rock-moving noise from the quarrying operation at Mile 13, which is near the ferry terminal. It sounds to me like this activity should be added to the peace and quiet initiative.

On Sunday we had our VHF FM radio tuned into channel 16. Instead of an emergency we found we were listening to a sometimes absurd and obscene live version of Word of Mouth.

The helicopter noise doesnt bother me where I live, the float planes taking off from downtown bother me for a few minutes all day long. But what really annoys me year-round is when the shipping company unloads its barge in the wee hours every Monday or Tuesday for several hours. Id like to take that forklift and its back-up beeper and run it in the bay. It wakes me at 2 or 3 a.m. and goes on for what seems like hours.